Capital Humano

Krutowns as Labouring Communities in Atlantic Ports and the Shift to

Legitimate Trade

British expansion in West Africa in the nineteenth century led to an increase in Kru employment. Kru continued to be hired in their homeland on the Kru Coast, which resulted in the extension of their activities to the new communities of returning African Americans who founded Liberia, as well as in their diaspora community at Freetown. Kru were offered contracts in West Africa as part of the British initiative to encourage legitimate trade (trade in agricultural commodities such as palm oil and peanuts) and repress the Atlantic slave trade.1 Gradually, the Kru formed a network of diaspora communities that extended beyond the Kru Coast. The first of these new communities after Freetown was located at Monrovia, after it was founded in 1822, which in effect extended the coastal concentration of Kru settlements to the west of the original five towns. Thereafter, Royal Navy service and commercial contracts in the palm oil industry formed the main thrust of Kru employment and provided the rationale for the creation of Krutowns in many of the ports where they laboured.2

This chapter investigates the foundation of the Kru community at Monrovia and the subsequent extension of Kru labour along the West African coast, first at Cape Coast, and in the Atlantic at Ascension Island, Fernando Po, and Simon’s Town at the Cape of Good Hope. Their

1 _{For a discussion on the transition from slave trading to so-called legitimate trade in agricultural}

commodities in West Africa see Paul Lovejoy and David Richardson, “The Initial ‘Crisis of Adaptation’: The Impact of British Abolition on the Atlantic Slave Trade in West Africa, 1808- 1820,” in From Slave Trade to ‘Legitimate’ Commerce: The Commercial Transition in

Nineteenth Century West Africa ed., Robin Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

2002), 32-56; Martin Lynn, “The West African Palm Oil Trade in the Nineteenth Century and the ‘Crisis of Adaptation,’” in From Slave Trade to ‘Legitimate’ Commerce: The Commercial

Transition in Nineteenth Century West Africa ed., Robin Law (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2002), 57-77.

communities were established adjacent to naval bases as part of the Royal Navy’s suppression strategy to maintain a steady labour pool of seamen. Kru labourers in Lagos served both a military function and worked in palm oil production, which extended to Calabar and Bonny in the Niger Delta. The establishment of new diaspora communities in these locations was related to their employment in commercial and military contexts. Kru labour was increasingly important in the suppression of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in pursuit of Cuban, French, and Brazilian slave ships, even as the Cuban slave trade intensified. Their involvement in British suppression efforts led to the creation of Krutowns that followed the model of Freetown. This chapter explores the ways that headmen continued to structure labour relations with the British in

diaspora communities as Kru labour came to include agricultural contracts and coaling on Royal Navy steamships.

Coastal West Africa

The Kru established a labouring community at Cape Mesurado, which became Monrovia after the arrival of the first African American settlers (Americo-Liberians) who were to found Liberia.3 Fraenkel suggests that when the settlers arrived in 1822, there was already a Kru

community present that dated to at least the first decade of the nineteenth century.4 _{Similar to the}

Kru community in Freetown, it was not formally recognized as Krutown until several years after the arrival of Kru labourers. In 1822, American Colonization Society agent, Jeduhi Ashmun

3 _{For more discussion on the term “Americo-Liberians” see Robert P. Murray, “Whiteness in}

Africa: Americo-Liberians and the Transformative Geographies of Race,” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Kentucky, 2013), 25.

estimated the Kru population on Bushrod Island to be 50.5 Samuel Wilkeson made an early reference to “Krootown” in 1825.6 _{However, it was not until the 1830s that there were frequent}

references to a Monrovia Krutown in the African Repository and other writings of the period, and the earliest known photograph dates to 1886 (Fig. 3.1).7

Figure 3.1

Krootown, Monrovia, c. 1886

Source: Johann Büttifoker, “Kroo Town bei Monrovia, mit einer Gruppe van Krunegem.

Maker,” 1886, accessed on June 1, 2017, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/460774605603362096/. Kru continued their role as stevedores loading and unloading cargoes in port and were hired on British, Dutch and American ships. The hiring practices in Monrovia resembled those

5 _{Jehudi Ashmun, History of the American Colony in Liberia from December 1821 to 1823}

(Washington: Way & Gideon, 1826), 7.

6 _{Samuel Wilkeson, A Concise History of the Commencement, Progress and Present Condition} of the American Colonies in Liberia (Washington: Madisonian Office, 1839), 20. Although

Wilkeson published his book in 1839, he refers to Krootown in a section referring to events in 1825.

7 _{“Municipal Legislation at Monrovia,” African Repository 12, no. 5 (1836): 163; African} Repository 48 (1872): 186; A Manual to Accompany Colton’s Missionary Map of the World

(New York: G.W. & C.B. Colton & Co., 1878), 53; “Elevation of the Natives,” African

in Freetown as Kru headmen negotiated the terms of contracts for service on ships. In 1842, Charles Rockwell described the hiring process in Monrovia as follows:

On coming to anchor in the harbor of Monrovia, we made an arrangement with one of the chiefs or captains of the Kroomen, by which we secured the services of about thirty of his tribe, to fill our ship with water from the neighboring river, and to perform other boat service, by which the health of our own crew would have been exposed. They had

rations allowed them on board, and a part of them commonly slept there at night. As they had most of them either served for a time aboard English men-of-war, or had frequent intercourse with merchant ships of the same nation, or of our own, they spoke a broken English, in which the pronoun me was almost the only one used.8

The passage reveals that the Kru had regular contact with British vessels in Monrovia. Many of the Kru who resided in Krutown had previously been employed in the Royal Navy or on British merchant ships and decided to settle in Monrovia rather than Freetown. This may have been because of the opportunity to find continual employment in Dutch and German factories between contracts with the British as discussed below. The headman, who Rockwell identifies as a chief or captain, secured employment for his labour gang. The process begun on the Kru Coast and in Freetown had become standard hiring practice in the Kru diaspora community in Monrovia by the 1840s.

Like the Krutown that developed in Freetown, Kru resided next to the waterside, which was essential due to the nature of their work. Their community was located on the bank of the Mesurado River (Fig. 3.2). They fished for subsistence and sold their catch locally. A fish market was established in Krutown in 1872.9 As seen in Fig. 3.2, living on the riverbank allowed Kru easy access to European and American ships for trade and employment. The size of the Kru population in Monrovia in the early nineteenth century is unknown. Yet, it is reasonable to suggest that the population was far less than the number of Kru in Freetown because they were

8 _{“Description of the Kroo,” African Repository 18, no.11 (1842): 277.} 9 _{“Liberian Intelligence,” African Repository 48, no. 6 (1872): 186.}

Figure 3.2

Krootown, Monrovia c. 1900

Source: Unknown Photographer. Krootown, Monrovia, Postcard, accessed on June 1, 2017, http://cartespostales.eu/liberia/110463-LIBERIA_-_MONROVIA_-_Krootown_-

_tr_s_bon__tat.html.

not employed on steady contracts with the British in Monrovia. Their employment more closely resembled their hiring practices on the Kru Coast, which depended on passing ships.

However, the Kru population had increased by the 1880s. Eventually, a second Krutown developed on the other bank of the Mesurado River.10 It was smaller and was more akin to a makeshift settlement than an official Krootown. In 1886, Johann Büttikofer differentiated the two communities.

Whereas the Krootown at Monrovia supplies the Dutch factory with labourers and sailors, the Woermann factory draws the same almost exclusive from the other, which therefore is also called German Krootown. It is smaller though, and now also built anew,

as a couple of years ago the town stood quite close to the mouth of the river on the so- called Kroo-point.11

Beyond supplying British ships with seamen, both Krutowns catered to the labour demands of Dutch and German factories by supplying workers. The establishment of German Krootown suggests that Kru continued to live close to their workplaces and were willing to create new communities in any location where they had the opportunity to earn steady wages. Their duties included transporting cargo from factory to ship before departure for Europe. Kru residing in German Krootown engaged in supplying docked ships with coal that was stored in the

Woermann factory. Kru were hired at many Woermann factories on the African coast between Monrovia and Swakopmund in South West Africa.12 German companies tended to hire Kru labourers in Monrovia, which meant that most Kru working on contract came from Kabor and Jloh dako.13 In 1883, there was a fire that burnt down part of Krutown in Monrovia, but it was rebuilt.14 During this period, Büttikofer estimated the population of Kru working in Monrovia to be approximately 1,000.15

Beginning in the 1880s, the Krutown Headman in Monrovia was given the title of “Kru Governor” by the Liberian state.16 _{His role was like the Krutown Headman in Freetown, which}

was to keep order in the community and secure labour for ships. And, like the Kru community in Freetown who competed with Yoruba labourers for contracts, Kru residing in Monrovia

competed with Vai. Vai traditionally resided in Cape Mount, which was the region adjacent to

11 _{Ibid, 50.}

12 _{Kru worked on Woermann factories in Victoria, Doula, Cape Lopez, Gabon and}

Swakopmund. See Theodor Bohner, Die Woermanns (Berlin: Brüke zur Heimat, 1935), 133.

13 _{Sundiata, “Rise and Decline,” 28.} 14 _{Büttikofer, Travel Sketches, 49.} 15 _{Ibid, 49.}

Monrovia. They established a community in the vicinity of Monrovia known as “Vey town.”17 Labourers from their community went to Monrovia in search of work. In 1899, Heinrich Klose described their relationship with the Kru as follows: “Die Kruboys und Weiboys [Vai] sind Todfeinde.”18 Klose’s characterization of the Kru and Vai as mortal enemies most likely developed from the fact that the Kru had migrated to Monrovia in the vicinity of Vai territory and threatened to take labour contracts away from their community. Unlike the Kru, Vai labourers failed to establish diaspora communities on the coast of West Africa. In 1916, Monrovia Krutown became known as the Borough of Krutown, and the Kru Corporation that secured contracts for Kru workers was established. By 1920, the Kru population was estimated at 8,000.19

When compared with the Kru from the five towns who formed the majority in Krutown in Freetown, those Kru working in Monrovia were primarily the Jloh Kru from Sasstown and Gbeta Kru from Picininny Cess on the Kru Coast.20 While both groups spoke Kru and resided on the Kru Coast for centuries, their towns did not belong to the original five settlements. Tonkin and Davis have suggested that their towns developed in the nineteenth century. The Jloh are believed to have migrated from east of the Cavalla River at an unknown date before eventually being associated with the creation of Sasstown around 1840.21 _{The Gbeta Kru formed the town}

Picaninny Cess to the northwest of Grand Cess. They are believed to have emigrated from the St. John River in Bassa country before establishing themselves in Picaninny Cess.22

17 _{Reverend Joseph Tracy, “Muhammedanism in Central Africa,” African Repository 45, no. 8}

(1869): 240.

18 _{Klose, Togo unter Deutscher Flagge, 11.} 19 _{Fraenkel, Tribe and Class, 89.}

20 _{Ibid, 77.}

21 _{Davis, Ethnohistorical Studies, 106-107; Tonkin, Narrating Our Pasts, 22.} 22 _{Davis Ethnohistotical Studies, 130.}

The establishment of new coastal communities on the Kru Coast in the nineteenth century led to the formation of new dako including Kabor, Jloh, Sasstown (or Pahn), and Gbeta, and interior dako including the Matro, Bolo, Nanke and Bwa.23 Kru villages adjacent to the “Proper Kru” extended to the Cestos River in the west and Grand Cess in the east (Fig. 3.3). They all

Fig. 3.3

Kru Coast, Mid-Nineteenth Century

Source: Adapted from map in Davis, “Liberian Struggle,” 223.

spoke Kru and expanded the geographical parameters of the Kru Coast. The formation of new towns that sent their workers abroad meant that new dako were established and engaged in migratory labour, and like those Kru in Freetown, those in Monrovia were identified as Kru.

23 _{Fraenkel, “Social Change,” 154-155; Frost, Work and Community, 7; Davis, Ethnohistorical} Studies, 69-196; Martin, “Krumen,” 402-403; Fraenkel, “Social Change,” 154; Behrens, Les Kroumen, 19-38; C. Wondji, “The States and Cultures of the Upper Guinea Coast,” in General History of Africa, Vol. 5: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century, ed. Bethwell A.

By the 1830s, the Kru established another community at Cape Coast Castle. Their service on Royal Navy ships ensured that they sailed between Freetown and Cape Coast in pursuit of slave ships. While there is no evidence that they established a quarter known as Krutown as they had in Freetown, Thomas Baynes writing for The Encyclopedia Britannica described their community as a “colony of Kroomen” living in quarters adjacent to Cape Coast Castle in 1833.24 Although the size of their community is not documented, they were

distinguished from local Fante labourers. The earliest available figure regarding the size of the community dates to 1868 when there were 16 Kru listed as living in the colony at Cape Coast.25 Kru loaded and unloaded cargo as well as served in a military capacity being stationed at Cape Coast Castle and the adjacent barracks.26

Should Kru labourers suffer an injury on the job, they were admitted to the Government Hospital in Cape Coast (and all locations in the Gold Coast). They were charged a special fee compared with Royal Navy officers and seamen. An ordinance in 1887 stated the following:

When a Krooman in service of any person shall have been admitted as a patient in any Government Hospital by a Surgeon in charge, even though not upon the request of such Krooman’s employer, there shall be a payable by such employer in respect of such Krooman the sum of One shilling for each day in residence in such a Hospital.27

Whether a Kru shoreside labourer or seaman in the Royal Navy or commercial vessel, the employer was responsible for paying one shilling per day for hospitalization. By comparison,

24 _{Thomas Spencer Baynes, The Encyclopedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and} General Literature, Ninth Edition, vol. 5 (New York: Henry G Allen and Company Publishers,

1833), 41.

25 _{J.J. Crooks, Records Relating to the Gold Coast, 1750-1874 (London: Routledge, [1903]}

2016), 354.

26 _{Kru service in the campaign against the Asante will be discussed in Chapter Five.}

27 _{William Brandford Griffith, Esquire, C.M.G. Governor, “An Ordinance to Establish Payment}

for the Treatment of Certain Patients in Government Hospitals,” Ordinance No. 2, 12 March 1887, 641.

British masters paid a fee of 10s., officers 7s. 6d. and seamen 4s. per day.28 Perhaps the lower fee was an incentive for British captains to employ Kru without fear of heavy costs associated with hospital care. Moreover, the fact that the Kru were allotted special mention in the ordinance and assigned a fee that differed from British seamen demonstrates that the Kru had established a distinct identity in Cape Coast. Gradually, it became a common feature in hospital ordinances in West Africa to give the Kru special mention as shown below in the discussion of the Kru

community in Lagos.

Apparently, one of their duties that was important at Cape Coast included Kru service in shoreside transportation. Kru taxied British officials and visiting foreigners on go-carts that were comparable in design to the “Japanese rickshaw.”29 _{In 1897, Colonial Secretary of the Gold}

Coast, F.M. Hodgson reported that the Kru drove the go-carts in the following manner:

I had been conveyed to the foot of the hills in a go-cart, which in the towns of Accra and Cape Coast is fast becoming the common means of locomotion…the Gold Coast go-cart is a pole and a cross-bar take the place of shafts. It is propelled by Krooboys one of whom, usually the senior, holds the pole at the crossbar and guides the cart, and two push behind by means of a rail fitted at the back for that purpose. These lads- natives of the Kroo Coast…bowl along with the go-carts at a fair speed.30

Hodgson associated Kru labourers exclusively with go-cart transportation in Cape Coast and Accra. Go-carts were manned by three Kru in a hierarchal structure. It most probable that the most “senior” worker was the headman in the operation. He directed the pace, route and

logistics of transportation between locations and was assumed to take his share of earnings from the other labourers.31

28 _{Ibid, 641.}

29_{F.M. Hodgson, “Notes on a Journey in the Gold Coast Colony,” St. Martin’s Le Grand, vol. 6} (London: W.P. Griffith & Sons, 1896), 2.

30 _{Ibid, 2.} 31 _{Ibid, 2.}

Kru continued to man the surfboats from ship to shore as they had in Freetown and on the Kru Coast. They also sailed between Cape Coast and Freetown on Royal Navy vessels in pursuit of slave ships. Their permanent presence reveals that Kru diaspora and labour communities had expanded from the 1790s in Freetown to include Cape Coast by at least the 1830s, if not before.

Ascension Island became an important port in Royal Navy operations when it was occupied in 1815.32 It served as the naval headquarters supply depot for the Royal Navy in the Atlantic. Located nearly mid-way between Africa and Brazil, its strategic position enabled naval vessels to pursue slave ships far out to sea in all directions. The Kru had a long history

throughout the nineteenth century of residing in and transiting through Ascension Island while serving in the Royal Navy. Much like the colony of Kru established at Cape Coast, they also formed an independent colony in Garrison Station, in the port, Georgetown. In their quarter, they lived in sheds adjacent to the lodgings of British seamen. This space enabled the Kru to speak their language, sing Kru work songs, and maintain cultural practices in diaspora.33 Unlike Freetown, where there were many quarters inhabited by a range of African communities

including Yoruba and Congolese, in Garrison, the Kru formed the only unique African community.

While they only remained in Garrison for short periods before sailing on Royal Navy